readFITSarray {FITSio}R Documentation

Read an image (multi-dimensional array) from a FITS file

Description

Read an image (multi-dimensional array) from an open connection to a FITS file.

Usage

readFITSarray(zz, hdr)

Arguments

zz file handle; see Example.
hdr vector of header information from readFITSheader.

Details

readFITSarray reads the data from the image part of a FITS Header and Data Unit containing image data. The header must be read first by readFITSheader to provide the variable hdr.

Value

A list containing

imDat Data array.
axDat Data frame with axis scaling and labels.
hdr Vector with parsed header.

Note

Graphical FITS viewers such as fv (http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/ftools/fv/) and SAOImage DS9 (http://hea-www.harvard.edu/RD/ds9/) have excellent facilities for displaying FITS data, headers, and file structure. Having one or more graphical viewers available will prove extremely useful for working with FITS files, even when the data are read into R for further processing. fv and SAOImage DS9 are in active devlopement with support for unix, Windows, and Mac OS-X operating systems, and are available at no cost.

Author(s)

Andrew Harris

References

Hanisch et al., Astron. Astrophys. 376, 359-380 (2001)

http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/

See Also

readFITS, readFITSheader, readFITSbintable, file

Examples

    require("FITSio")
    ## Make a test file.
    Z <- matrix(1:15, ncol = 3)
    writeFITSim(Z, "test.fits")
    ## Open file, read header and array, close file and delete.
    zz <- file(description = "test.fits", open = "rb")
    hdr <- readFITSheader(zz)  # image data off primary header
    D <- readFITSarray(zz, hdr) 
    close(zz)
    ## Look at data 
    summary(D)
    image(D$imDat)
    ## Delete test file
    unlink("test.fits")

[Package FITSio version 1.0-2 Index]